Children's Transitions Team Manager
The 14 – 19 Children’s Transition Team consists of Social Workers, Family Intervention Workers and Family Support Workers and works closely alongside our Children with Disabilities Team and Adult’s Transition Team to ensure seamless transition from Children’s Social Care to Adult’s Social Care. We operate an early help approach to children with disabilities to ensure that children get the right help at the right level of the continuum of need. Our focus is on preparing Disabled Young People for Adulthood and to be as independent as possible. The Children’s Transition team is proud to be Makaton friendly and the team engage in regular sign and dine sessions to continue to develop this skill alongside the Children with Disabilities Team.
Cheshire West and Chester Council brings a fresh and energetic approach to providing top quality services for its many customers and communities. West Cheshire is a place where everyone can Thrive – through our core values of Teamwork, Honesty, Respect, Innovation, Value for Money and Empowerment.
This is a full time permanent vacancy and you will be responsible for the management, supervision, and professional development of the members of your team and ensuring that children and young people’s needs are met through quality interventions. You will be a qualified social worker registered with Social Work England and ideally will have previous management experience.
Our Children's Social Care workforce is passionate and committed to improving outcomes for children by providing a consistent, high-quality service to children and families, together with excellent working relationships with our partners and the support from a stable leadership and management team. We are committed to a culture of shared learning and development in which everyone has an active part to play in the continued progress of our services to children and families.
We have developed and continue to embed ‘Our Way of Working’ with our multi-agency partners to ensure improved collaboration and one common approach to our work with families using Motivational Interviewing and Trauma Informed Practice. Social workers are encouraged to work creatively in planning and decision-making with children and their families and our partner agencies to achieve positive outcomes and with a focus on prevention at every level.
We are proud that Ofsted have rated us “good” and one of the top performing Children’s Services in the country.
We are committed to supporting your continued development. In March 2019, OFSTED said that our ‘Social workers have access to a comprehensive learning and development package and are supported to develop their skills, experience and qualifications through a well-embedded ‘grow your own’ framework. Staff report opportunities to progress into more senior positions in the organisation and develop their skills through moving around different service areas. Social Workers receive regular and reflective supervision, and they are supported to learn and develop their skills through a comprehensive learning and development programme.’
A Social Worker who joined us recently said ‘My experience since joining Cheshire West and Chester has been amazing. I am continuing to learn and develop my own skills from working alongside outstanding social workers whose practice is child centred and trauma informed. My workload is manageable which is allowing effective social work practice to support and empower and building positive relationships with children and families. My colleagues are never too busy to help me out and offer both practical and emotional support when needed. It has been wonderful having a supportive manager and management team who make you feel they are working alongside you. Managers are always approachable and happy to support you.
Monthly supervisions allow me to reflect on my social work practice and time where I can identify with my manager different training opportunities in areas in which will support my career progression. I feel that I am a valued member of the team and am appreciated for the skills that I have brought from past experiences. This all influenced my decisions to become a permanent social worker for Cheshire West and Chester.
Our social workers will tell you: - They feel supported and part of a team. They have access to excellent training opportunities. Managers at Cheshire West and Chester strive to make Social Workers feel valued and recognised, they are approachable and compassionate. Social Workers are encouraged and supported to be creative and strive for excellence. They feel valued and supported by their team, manager, and the senior managers.
Our commitment and investment in professional development means that most of our Senior Practice Leads, Team Managers and some Senior Managers have progressed within our own organisation.
As a local authority, we continue to develop and enhance our inspirational social work offer to support and develop our valued workforce, including.
* Work-life balance, flexible and remote working arrangements available, including up to date IT equipment, and a smart mobile phone for all employees – this has been enhanced because of what we have learned through our experience of working within the challenges of COVID-19 and ‘lockdown’, many of which we intend to keep as we move forward.
* High quality progression and developmental opportunities
* Competitive working rewards
* High quality supervision
* Strong reflective practice framework
* Free parking at all our office locations
As employers, we recognise that Cheshire West and Chester Council has a major role to play in improving the quality of life of its employees. We are committed to agile flexible and mobile working and helping employees to maintain an effective balance between their work and home life. The COVID lockdown has meant we have been able to improve our ability to work away from an office, to be more flexible and creative in the use of our time and maximising the use of technology, whilst at the same time ensuring we can come together as teams and with our support networks on a regular basis. We continue to develop a ‘new normal’ and this hybrid arrangement allows for us to be more flexible in how we provide services to children and families and an enhanced work/life balance for our Social Workers.
We have a strong and supportive political and senior leadership team with a wealth of experience and knowledge about children’s outcomes across the borough of Cheshire West and Chester.
If you have any queries about this vacancy and the opportunities available within our authority, please contact Senior Manager sarah.banks@cheshirewestandchester.gov.uk
Please note that this job is subject to a Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS) check.
To find out more information about what it is like to work for Cheshire West and Chester Council including our rewards and benefits please see www.cwcrecruitment.co.uk
No candidate will meet every single requirement - if your experience looks a little different from what we've identified and you think you can bring value to the role, we'd love to learn more about you!
Cheshire West and Chester Council are committed to equality and diversity in employment. Please see the Equality Policy for more information.
Cheshire West and Chester Council have adopted a Local Living Wage for our employees which means that all employees will receive a minimum of £10.90 per hour for all contracted hours.
For any technical enquiries please email Sourcingteam@ecwip.co.uk and quote job reference number in all correspondence.